Syria terrorists trading CIA-supplied weapons on Facebook

Syrian terrorists have set up a Facebook page that functions as a marketplace for trading various CIA-supplied weapons, ranging from heavy machine guns to rocket launchers and missiles.

Dubbed “The First Weapons Market in Idlib Countryside,” the page displays weapons that are put on sale by traders whose profiles hint at sympathies for the Daesh (ISIL) Takfiri group.

Items listed for sale on the page included a TOW missile launcher that its buyer said was supplied by “the US Pentagon”, a $3,800 Soviet-era grenade launcher and 105mm cannon shells.

The US Central Intelligence Agency has provided TOW missiles to select militant groups in Syria and Iraq since the civil war erupted in 2011.

Thermal cameras made by FLIR, an American company in Oregon, were available to virtually anyone who was willing to pay about $4,000 and for a hefty $67,000 the buyers could lay their hands on a MANPAD (Man-portable air-defense system).

In the comment section militants can be seen openly discussing the weapons and even bartering them for other firearms.

It is also possible for those in need of a particular weapon to make a post and wait for a potential seller.

“Quick friends, I need a gun with a silencer,” one member reportedly wrote.

Interested buyers are instructed to contact the page’s administrators in private, using the popular messaging application WhatsApp to finalize the purchase.

According to US Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder, the US and its coalition partners have air-dropped tons of weapons to militants fighting inside Syria.

In one case, US military aircraft delivered 50 tons of ammunition in October to the so-called “moderate” militants who are trained by the CIA and the Pentagon to fight Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

In 2013, the CIA began its covert program to arm, fund and train terrorists to overthrow the Assad government.

Another similar program was conducted by the Pentagon last year, but was pulled after failing to meet its initial goal of producing more than 5,000 militants annually.

According to US military officials, the program had a $600 million funding and only managed to train a small cadre of militant, some of whom either defected or surrendered arms to Daesh or the al-Nusra front.